Bulldogs World

 I found this on my looking around, athttp://www.vetinfo.com/dpyoderm.html My dog, Sammy, is a 75-lb mixed breed. He looks like a Shep/Rotty mix. Three months ago he would yelp when I would touch a spot on his back; near and around his withers. When I took him to the vet, we couldn't do anything to reproduce this symptom. Accordingly, the vet prescribed Prednisone because he thought Sammy had a pinched nerve. My dog did not do well on Prednisone and I weaned him off it in about a week. About six days later I brought him back to the vet because his skin was flaking (dandruff) and he was diagnosed with a staph infection and given Ceflexin (sp?) which worked well. We didn't make any connection back then.

     Now, three months later, the same sequence of events has occurred. First the yelping -- the vet thought it might be bone-related -- and then the itch and scaling. We finally realized the pain he had three months ago was probably associated with the staph infection, just like it is now.

     What can be causing this infection, how can I treat it, and more importantly, is there any way to avoid it occurring in the future? Is it contagious to humans or other animals? He enjoys the local dog-park and I'd hate to have to avoid going there with him in the future.

 

Skin infections (pyoderma) occur as primary infections (no underlying cause) and as secondary infections to other diseases, especially allergies, parasites and immune system disorders. It can be very hard to figure out whether a skin infection is primary or secondary in some dogs. The presence of pain or tenderness in the areas that becomes infected, prior to visible signs of infection, makes the probability of this being a secondary infection a little higher, probably.  On the other hand, when the clinical signs clear up with antibiotic therapy alone, it makes a primary bacterial skin infection more likely  --- so essentially you have a toss-up going on and you and your vet will have to work through this over time to determine what is going on.

The biggest mistake that people make when treating skin infections is not treating them long enough. If an infection responds to antibiotics and then recurs, it is a really good idea to use antibiotics for at least 6 weeks and possibly 8 or more weeks, to try to eliminate the infection. If that doesn't work, it may be necessary to treat intermittently, or even to treat continuously, to control some skin infections.  Cephalexin is usually a good choice since most of the time these are staph skin infections.

It is a good idea to make sure there are no fleas, no mites (Demodex or Sarcoptes) and to pay attention to when the skin infections occur to try to see if there is a link to something, or if they occur the same time each year. This gives a hint about underlying causes.

I know of no evidence that staph skin infections from dogs are contagious to humans and there are only scattered reports in which vets worried over potential contagiousness between dogs. Most of the time these are normal bacterial residents of the dog's skin that just get out of hand because a particular dog has some problem controlling them.

Read more: Pyoderma (bacterial skin infection), Interdigital Pyoderma in Dogs
 

 

 

I also found this one that might help someone else as well as us.

Cephalexin Weekend Therapy for Dogs 

Pyoderma is a common dermatological condition in dogs, usually as a secondary illness caused by a primary health concern. In these cases, treating the primary concern will relieve the pyoderma as well. However, in some cases, veterinarians are unable to find a primary cause, so the pyoderma is labeled as "idiopathic," or arising from an unknown cause. In such cases, the goal of the veterinarian is to keep the condition from recurring, which is typically accomplished with the antibiotic cephalexin.

A Study
1. A study, published in Veterinary Dermatology, funded by Virbac SA, and titled "Cephalexin intermittent therapy in dogs with 'idiopathic' reccurent pyoderma," was conducted in 2004 by D. N. Carlotti, P. Jasmin, L. Gardey, and A.Sanquer. They assessed the effectiveness of cephalexin "weekend" treatment for dogs with idiopathic pyoderma. By "weekend" treatment, they referred to giving the antibiotic two days out of each week rather than on a daily basis. Before beginning the study, they determined that each of the 28 test subject dogs had a history of idiopathic pyoderma and had no underlying skin condition.
   
   During the first phase of the study, the test subjects were treated with cephalexin to cure their pyoderma, receiving twice daily treatment for a minimum of four weeks and a maximum of two to four months, depending on whether the pyoderma was superficial or deep in the tissues. Once all of the test subjects were cured, the study entered phase two.
   
   In phase two, a few dogs were removed from the study for various reasons, but the others were divided into a control and an experimental group. The experimental group, containing 10 dogs, received twice daily doses of cephalexin on Saturday and Sunday each week for one year. The control group of 13 dogs received a placebo. The veterinarians examined the dogs physically and scored them for clinical signs of pyoderma every two months during phase two, unless a relapse of their condition necessitated an earlier examination.
Results
2. The study found a significant difference between the two groups of dogs. Of the ten dogs receiving the cephalexin weekend treatment, two of them did not relapse at all during the one year period of the study. Of the remaining eight dogs, the average length of time before a relapse of their pyoderma was about 6.6 months. In comparison, the dogs in the control group had an average relapse time of 2.5 months, less than half the time of those receiving the weekend treatment.
   
   The authors of the study concluded that cephalexin weekend therapy was effective for dogs with idiopathic recurrent pyoderma.

Read more: Best Way - Cephalexin Weekend Therapy for Dogs | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/print/way_5421571_cephalexin-weekend-therapy-dogs.html#ixzz0swI1Mlh4
 

I have a call in for her Vet, however she is off today. I am going to wait for mine, because she knows whats been tried and what hasn't, she'll be in tomorrow. She is not in any distress at all only when put the cream on her bumps, does she show any reaction, otherwise she is her happy self. Thank Goodness,  Thanks for your help, I will let you know how it goes.